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Review Summary

In this carefully paced human drama, Mathias Gnädinger skillfully portrays the mayor of a growing town involved in two major crises, neither of which seem within anyone's ability to handle. In one crisis, a celebrated architect has acquired a house with the promise to renovate it, but instead he plans on using the house in speculative real estate deals -- a fact which is sparking protests. The mayor is caught in the middle between the architect, who has helped him in the past, and his sympathy with the protesters who have occupied the house. In the second crisis, a close friend of the mayor's dies in a tragic accident and simply because the man was gay, the widowed mayor is suspected of being a homosexual, a suspicion that could ruin his career in this provincial town. For the first time in his official career, the mayor is faced with personal and professional difficulties that pit his sense of ethics against his political future. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi